Food

One of the things I appreciate here in Norway is the access to different kinds of food. For example, Turkish food, wild blueberries in the forest, and the good old Gudbrandsdalsost. As some of you know, I like taking pictures of food, and now I've decided to share some of them with you.

Wild blueberries found in Østmarka --- went hiking with my friend Marit yesterday. I love walking in the forest and the smell of the trees, the lakes, and ... the blueberries (?)

This picture is for my friends Silje and Natasha!!! In Østmarka yesterday, Marit and I met a lady who had found a basket full of mushrooms and other interesting species. (Don't know what these are called in Norwegian, English, or any other language for that sake....)

We had lunch by this water. Quite stunning!

The lunch. Home made pasta salad.

Veggie burritos at Mucho Más (Grünerløkka). They were lovely, but very different from my veggie burritos. I got some ideas that I'll try out next time I make burritos in Spain.

Quesdillas con gambas at Mucho Más. Natasha said they were lovely!

Lunch in the park at my friend Gina's hen party last weekend.

Wine in my friend's garden out in Suburbia.

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And finally, the good old Gudbrandsdalsost, brunost, cheese that is brown:

I know I've made some of my friends in Spain addicted to this cheese, and I'll seriously try to find that shop in Fuengirola where we can buy the Gudbrandsdalsost. For the time being, however, you can read about the cheese on this interesting blog: http://www.slowtrav.com/blog/chiocciola/2008/02/brunost_cheese_that_is_brown.html That's also where the picture above is stolen from.

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So life in Norway is good. It's nice to be here and spend time with friends, family, books, films etc. It's nice to hear Norwegian all the time, and sometimes a bit strange too. I miss hearing Spanish, and I'm so happy every time I can speak English to Bradley, Kelly, or other English-speaking friends!

Everything is very expensive here. The wine, for instance. In Norway you can't buy wine in the super markets. They sell it in so called Wine Monopolies. And ... you have to show your ID card if you're under 25 years old. The first time I went to the local Wine Monopoly the sales assistant actually asked me to show him my ID card. I said "You must be joking" .... but no. He thought I was under 25. Haha! We all had a good laugh after that:)

Saturday is The Big Day. Gina and Bjørn Trygve are getting married! They're having a big party with 86 guests. Her hen party last weekend was much fun, and she accepted all the challenges we gave her, inclduing some water sports activities on Mjøsa. Here's a picture of the bride getting ready for vann-pølsa, aka "the water saucage"...

Gina

That's it for now. Going shopping now with crazy shopping friends, but first: lunch at a Turkish place. I love it! The weather is crap, but I'm happy, and then it doesn't really matter! :)

Frognerparken/The Vigeland Park

One of my favourite places in Oslo, this evening, at around 9.30pm. The famous sculpture park, Frognerparken, with sculptures made by Gustav Vigeland. I love the light in the evening, and the sun!! Beautiful, isn't it?

80 hours

It is good to be back in Norway! My "I-don't-want-to-leave-Spain"-blues has passed. Here's my little report of life in Norway so far, in a totally random order, after 80 hours in this wonderful country:

1. It never gets dark here at night!! Wow! It is sooo bright, compared to Spain. Beautiful summernights with a beautiful light.

2. I didn't know how much I missed chatting to/joking with/passing remarks to the shop assistants before I got back here and could talk to everyone without having to
a.) (in Spanish) make my comments extremely easy linguistically due to my limited Spanish
b.) (in English) make my comments extremely easy linguistically due to the shop assistant's limited English

3. The water from the tap tastes lovely -- no hint of chlorine or any other dubious tastes...

4. It is lovely to be with friends and family again!!!!

5. I have seen the house I grew up in. My family went down memory lane after the funeral in Brumunddal on Wednesday -- this brought up lots of memories from my childhood of course.

6. The public transport system has progressed! They have finally started using the electronic ticket system after postponing it for at least three (??) years here in Oslo (correct me if I'm wrong).

7. Oslo is a truly multicultural city, and I have already heard lots of languages that I had forgotten that you can hear in the capital of Norway.

8. It was very cold here the first day. I experienced a drop in around 20 degrees...

9. Norwegian ice-cream is very nice!

10. I saw a car with a Spanish flag on in the very famous city Hokksund this afternoon! This flag was identical to the one I bought for my car (see picture on this blog entry) and I nearly ran over and started talking to the people in the car. That's how excited I got! My first "I miss Spain"-experience.

Ok, that's it for now. Have a lovely weekend everyone! Hasta pronto, chicos y chicas!

¡Campeones del mundo!

 Los Chicos de España! (Source: http://www.nrksport.no/contentfile/file/1.6561101!f169CropList/img650x367.jpg)

¡felicidades! ¡felicidades! ¡felicidades! ¡felicidades! ¡felicidades! ¡felicidades!

Spain won the World Cup in football!!!!!! Even my car Pedro participated in the celebration!! Look at the nice Spain flag I bought him for the celebration and hooting and honking! (Thanks to the African seller for actually taking this photo of Elaine and me...) Do you like the flag??

Swimming pool and football

Before I go to bed after a lovely day I would like to share three things with you about the Spanish people and their behaviour. This is of course very subjective, and please don't hold this against me. I know I'm currently walking down the (very dangerous) road of stereotyping.

1.) Most of the tourists by the swimming pool (in my complex) are British. They are all over the place, and sometimes it feels as if they are taking over "our" pool. "Hey, we live here!" (Quote the people who actually live here!) So it was a great change of scene this afternoon when a nice Spanish man and his three daughters were playing in the pool, singing Spanish songs, and being as loud as the British tourists, but in Spanish. 

2.) Nevertheless, I have to admit that when I went for (a lovely and very cheerful) lunch with friends in Fuengiróla earlier today, the six of us were probably much louder than the Spanish people are when in tapas bars. Cause hey, they're known for being extremely loud when they go out... So I guess it's all about giving and taking? :)

3.) Tomorrow night is the night of the grande finale! If you didn't know yet: Spain is in the World Cup final against the Netherlands. People have been crazy here this week, celebtrating the historical moment: This is the first time ever that Spain has reached the World Cup Finals! Go Spain!!!I'm watching the match in a nice pub (with very nice cocktails) tomorrow, and I'm even considering buying a Spanish T-shirt. Oh yeah!!!! I'm not that interested in football, but I'm very fascinated by how the World Cup influences people down here. (Mental note: Bring camera to football pub tomorrow night!)

Water

In Spain it takes more than six weeks to get a bote de agua (water tank) for my car's windscreen wipers! And this time I can't even blame my poor Spanish or the fact that I'm a girl who knows very little about cars, because the first time we ordered the tank I was actually at the garage with my Spanish friend Julio.

Six weeks later -- no water tank for Pedro. My new friend Jorge (the mechanic) promised he would get it last week, so we made an appointment today at 12. And this morning he called to tell me that the water tank had not arrived yet.

Lige Ud!

Dear Marisol and all my other blog readers. I am happy to introduce two guest bloggers tonight: Silje and Cathrine. They arrived here in Spain a week ago and I'm soooo glad I've got at least 30 hours left with them here in this fab country! What a wonderful week! Thanks, girls!

Cathrine and Silje in Puerto Banus.

Last week's events in Puerto Banus according to Silje and Cathrine:

To start off this blog entry, we would like to sum up this past week: food, wine, Glee, driving, more driving, singing (by yours truly), driving, visiting Stine's friends out in the countryside, shopping, Mojitos (the world's best), tapas, driving, tapas, sunscreen (on body and in eyes), Gibraltar, Tarifa, Cádiz, shopping, did we mention driving? And most importantly, laughing our butts off together with our fabulous friend.


Our first day was quite eventful with the market, Puerto Banus with all its "sights", and shopping at El Corte Inglés. Stine's non-shopping policy went to the dogs straight away (we're such a good influence...). The next day we threw a (may we say it, quite classy) birthday brunch for Spiderman's mom, Stine's lovely neighbor. After that we took a quick 2-hour drive inland to visit with a friend of Stine's from the choir. We got to see an amazing view and their fabulous house. Monday and Tuesday were spent in a shopping daze, we only remember clearly the gorgeous mojitos at the Plaza de la Ronda in the old part of Marbella - because, you know, siesta was on, despite Stine's reassurance of the opposite.

Gyda and Albert's amazing view.

  

Herbs galore all over the place (Silje wishes her garden was like that).

Wednesday we set out to explore the wonders of the southern coastal line of Spain. Which is truly beautiful and amazing. First stop was... the queue to get across to Gibraltar. Where we sat for about an hour, waiting for our turn to drive across the airfield to pass customs and get back to good old Britain. Ah, the whiff of old colonial times... As Stine's scared of monkeys (and for no other reason whatsoever) we focused on seeing the town and revisiting the high street.

 The beach in Tarifa town.

From there we went to Tarifa, a lovely surf town we would recommend to all to go see. Looking across to Africa/Tanger on one side and out toward the vast blue Atlantic ocean on the other gives some perspective. However, try to find a place to stay outside of the town center. Although the hostals may be clean and cheap, we now know we would prefer the sound of waves to the sounds of the night life and hurricane winds.

'Nough said...

The Tarifa beaches are fantastic, and the water is perfect for swimming and playing in the waves.

Cádiz was hot...

 ... need we say more?

Stine has really transformed into a confident driver (we are not paid to write this, by the way). Last time we were in a car with Stine she was screaming at the driver (obviously she had no desire to drive herself), but now she is screaming at the other drivers instead as she happily speeds down the highway in her blue Italian wonder Pedro. "You #¤¤%$%&%}~!" is now a familiar phrase.

Surprisingly, Stine is not yet familiar with the siesta. How many times have we stood outside a shop only to find it closed? "No, that store is ALWAYS open". Or, as it turned out, it closes between 2 PM and 5:30 PM. Every day. Maybe it would have helped getting out of the house BEFORE 1 in the afternoon? Did anyone say lazy mornings and 2 hour brunches?

 Waiting for the siesta to end isn't all bad... Mojitos (and tapas) made with love in Marbella.

Today we've done some more financial damage, despite the fact that none of us won the lottery. Yet. We have made some new friends at Marks & Spencer - lovely Marigen, Veronika & Debbie who helped us find a total of 14 bras. An awkward moment occurred when Veronika told Silje: "Feel me", accompanied by "take it off". What a luxury, though, to get expert help to find bras that actually fit you right. All female readers will understand.

The mirador with a view to Africa.

 And here's Africa, too.

Altogether, this is a great vacation. Thank you, Stine, for having us, and prepare to repeat this huge success at a later time!